BEIRUT: Authorities are searching for the abductors of a Lebanese business owner who was released over the weekend in the east of the country, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said in remarks published Monday.
“Security services know the full names of the kidnappers,” Charbel told the local newspaper Al-Joumhouria, referring to the case of Fadi Mitri, an auto parts shop owner who was kidnapped in the in the Metn town of Mansourieh last week.
Mitri was released over the weekend after his family paid a ransom of $75,000.
According to the National News Agency, Mitri, 46, was found by a police patrol in the neighborhood of Douris, Baalbek, east Lebanon.
Charbel did not give the exact number of the kidnappers but said they are all wanted by Lebanese authorities on several arrest warrants.
The interior minister pointed out that the kidnapping rate in Lebanon has increased in conjunction with the growing number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.